THE BLACK HAND FORUM

That book is available on the internet now. Although with some of you being authors you may be offended at the notion of intellectual property on tap.

Although ironically due to the subject matter it’s life imitating art...imitating life...etc.

For posterity....



“The Navy Street Gang, as the tabloid papers dubbed the crew controlling those streets, earned its first headlines in the late twenties. On trial for the shooting deaths of two men gunned down at the “corner of Johnson and Navy Streets, “Tony the Shoe Maker” sat confidently in the dock. Witnesses against him suddenly remembered nothing. Didn’t he recall, a witness named “Buffalo Mike” was asked by a prosecutor, telling a grand jury about his initiation into the secret society called the Camorra? How his initiator had slit open a vein in his arm and sucked a small taste of blood from the wound? How he had explained that this was the “Brotherhood of the Blood”?
“Wasn’t that your testimony?” commanded the prosecutor. “I can’t remember,” said Buffalo Mike. The next day’s newspapers explained his forgetfulness: a spectator in the gallery had silently drawn an index finger across his throat, the Camorra death threat.
That was one tale Al D’Arco heard as a boy. There were many others. Big shots in the gang included the Lauritano brothers,” “who ran a café and pastry shop on Navy Street. For special customers they also served assassination. Murder could be arranged for as little as $10, more if it involved travel, which the brothers did often, leaving a trail of more than two dozen bodies behind. They were particularly effective during a civil war that raged between the Naples-based Camorra organization and the Sicilian Mafia, two factions vying to take over from those who invoked the dreaded Black Hand.
Despite their lethal activities, the brothers had powerful connections. Authorities had a difficult time putting them away. Convicted of murder, Leopoldo Lauritano inexplicably won early parole. Re-indicted on a new murder charge, a judge dismissed the case. Lauritano went back to his café.”

“The brothers were friendly with the D’Arco family, especially with Al’s grandfather”

B. wrote: ↑Fri Nov 29, 2019 2:07 pm https://books.google.com/books?id=fQ-wA ... et&f=false

There is another segment in the book on Navy Street -- you should be able to see the preview in that link. It isn't in his own words, but it talks about the Navy Street group and how Al D'Arco heard stories and knew the figures as a kid.

I believe his cousin-in-law Joe Schiavo mentioned in the other excerpt was from Trapani province, and so were the Varios from that crew. Just kind of interesting that the East Brooklyn crew had significant members from Agrigento and Trapani, not typical of the family's other crews with the exception of their NJ crew which had strong Trapanesi membership (specifically from Vita, like the Varios).

Leopoldo Lauritano, I'm familiar with him. Interesting that it says he went back to work at the Navy St Cafe after his release.

https://books.google.com/books?id=fQ-wA ... et&f=false

There is another segment in the book on Navy Street -- you should be able to see the preview in that link. It isn't in his own words, but it talks about the Navy Street group and how Al D'Arco heard stories and knew the figures as a kid.

I believe his cousin-in-law Joe Schiavo mentioned in the other excerpt was from Trapani province, and so were the Varios from that crew. Just kind of interesting that the East Brooklyn crew had significant members from Agrigento and Trapani, not typical of the family's other crews with the exception of their NJ crew which had strong Trapanesi membership (specifically from Vita, like the Varios).

I never read it before. Ok Interesting.

Thank you tremendously!

I think this might be the section you mean, let me know

* * * He remained an attentive student of “the Life,” as Jimmy Alto and others referred to their chosen calling. He also took lessons from a new tutor. At a family wedding he met Joseph Schiavo, the cousin by marriage who was the co-owner of the garment factory where his aunt Mildred had worked. Tall and totally bald, Schiavo was an imposing figure. “He reminded me of that actor, Erich Von Stroheim. He had that look.” Schiavo’s connections were equally impressive. His partner in the garment name Luchese, he now understood, ranked alongside Luciano, Costello, Genovese, and Anastasia in the Mafia pantheon. Even more impressive, his cousin Joe was a top member of Luchese’s family. Known among wiseguys as “Joe Reese,” Schiavo lived in the Canarsie neighborhood of south Brooklyn near the Queens border. When Al met him, Schiavo was in his late forties. He was partners with Luchese in more than a dozen garment shops, as well as trucking firms and supply companies. Each had its own favorable union contract and a market niche that no competitor dared challenge. Another part-owner in the shops was an old man of the mob named Torrido Curiale, who presided over the family’s Brooklyn crew with Schiavo as his top lieutenant. “I learned a lot from Joe Schiavo. He knew the whole history of the mob. He could trace back the families to where they started and the wars they had.” Among the history lessons he imparted to the young student was that the first American-based mob family had originated in Newark, not in New Orleans, as is generally believed. “It was called La Chiesa, the Church. The family that Tommy Luchese headed was the descendant of that first group.” The American mob had fought its own war of independence, Schiavo told him. “It was decided back under Luciano that the old Italian crime gangs, the Camorra, the Sicilian Mafia, and the ’Ndrangheta from Calabria, wouldn’t have any had killers who went around the country taking out the old guys who wanted to stay aligned with the Italian families.” One of those traveling executioners, Al was fascinated to learn, was Leo Lauritano, the smiling baker at the Navy Street café he’d visited as a small child with his grandparents. Another was his other mentor, Jimmy Alto, who had also been a traveling hitman, enforcing the new regime’s rules, he was told. Schiavo imparted tips as well as history lessons. “He knew a lot of places we could knock off if we were careful and smart. We started making good scores through him, hitting dress rooms, and factories.” Schiavo never asked for a share of the proceeds, Al noted, even though he was rightfully entitled to one. “I’d bring a couple cases of good olive oil as a thank-you. He never asked for more than that.” But the older mobster did stake his claim. He informed Al that he was now “with” the Luchese family. It was like putting the family brand on the budding mobster. Any future criminal enterprises Al launched would be under the Luchese umbrella. Al had no objections. In fact, he was delighted. * * *

In the book Al D'Arco mentions his cousin bringing up Navy Street, is there anyway someone could scan those pages?
I imagine its very brief, maybe even close to the NJ/Lucchese first family stuff that I also wouldn't mind seeing.

If it's not too much trouble, grazie.